homefields

Celebration was the theme and broad smiles the result of Homefields’ third annual Recognition Dinner, held at Miller’s Smorgasbord on the 23rd of January. Residents Brian Bixler, Mary-Beth Determan, Stefan Latshaw, The-odor Lyet, Victor Lyet, and Lisa Strauss and good friend Shawn Dougherty were honored for individual achievements throughout the past year. Two staff persons were recognized for years of service at Homefields: Edie Ford for 10 years at Homefields’ ranch house, and Scott Breneman for 6 years at Goodwill at Homefields. Participating in the celebration were family, friends and staff numbering 44 in all.

The Homefields’ Board of Directors hosts the annual dinner to recognize residents for their individual accom-plishments, staff at Homefields for every five years of service, and board members whose term in office is expir-ing. It was a fun evening!

Homefields Incorporated150 Letort RoadP.O. Box #41Millersville, PA 17551www.homefields.org

Issue twenty-four • August 2008

The Homefields’ Board of Directors is busy, as always, planning for the next step or steps in which to serve our community in a broader way. We’ve told the story of the 150–200 share-holder families who pick up shares of produce weekly at the farm, of the farmers who all also happen to have a developmental disability or other spe-cial need, and of the adults living in the homes at Homefields who have mental retardation as well as other life challenges.

This year a new standing committee has been formed to expand the use of Homefields property and resources. The purpose of Sharing Homefields is to benefit our Com-munity, benefit Home-fields, and benefit individuals in our Community.

In our first phase of Sharing Home-fields we plan to: d  Establish improved planned parking

areas d  Ensure handicap accessibility of our

buildingsd  Create signage to promote

Homefieldsd  Post directional signs for restrooms,

office, etc.d  Designate and furnish a picnic area

for small groupsOur future phases of Sharing Homefields will focus on the preservation, development and enhancement of our beautiful property and environment that we can share with others.

—Janet Hartle, Chair

Here is a short list of what Homefields is today: d  An all-volunteer nonprofit 501(C)(3) corporation with a 13-member Board of Directors. The directors range in age and life experience, from college student to retired professionals. The result is an organization with good governance skills and a panoramic view of possibilities. d  Fourteen acres of green space in a township that is experiencing unprecedented rates of farmland converted to developments. Whether preserving property structures built at the the turn of the 19th century, or proffering fields nurtured by people with special needs and turned into organic gardens, Homefields

Sharing Homefieldsencapsulates ideals of the past, present, and a holistic roadmap for the future. d  Grounds for Goodwill trainees for whom farming is a life’s ambition. Several trainees choose to make more than one bus change each day to arrive at Homefields’ farm by early morning.d  Homes, surrounded by nature’s beauty, for loved ones who have mental retardation. Peace of mind for families.

Self-determination, with the help of staff, for residents.d  A farm close enough to public transportation and community for all people to come, not just those who are able to drive a car.d  A blueprint of inspiration for forward-looking families who have a sister, brother,

son, or daughter who will need a home, with staff, of their own one day. d  A place where shareholders bring their children to learn the lessons of nature; volunteers who grow from within through reaching out; and students of all ages who learn, whether through attending board meetings, being with people who have developmental disabilities, or being instructed on the basics and techniques of organic farming.d  Where a sustainable agriculture program provides a local source of organically grown produce for consumers. Vegetables and fruit, ripe with vitamins and minerals, are available to pick or pick up on the drive home, an efficient and healthy way to conserve.

from Above, counter-clockwIse: President Joyce Smedley recognizes residents Stefan Latshaw, Brian Bixler, Lisa Strauss, and Theodor Lyet; corresponding secretary Gail Hawthorne and husband Ron Hawthorne; residents Marybeth Determan, and Victor Lyet. Christian Herr, Jr. addresses Dennis Dougherty, retiring board member.

Recognition Dinner 2008

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

—Mahatma Gandhi

Residential Mission: To create financially secure, long-term homes for adults with special needs in safe, family-like settings where there is respect for the individual in a holistic sense, and fun and creativity are re-vered, as basic human needs.

Vocational Mission: To provide horticultural facilities for individuals who prosper with supported employment, to nurture integration through community interaction, and to cultivate a spirit of volunteerism within our community.

The official registration statement and financial information of Homefields may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free, within Pennsylvania, 1 (800) 732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

Edie Ford, staff member in the ranch house, is recognized for a decade of caring.

Scott Breneman, farm manager, has been at Homefields for six years. Here, he accepts the award from tom strauss.

2.

I think I might like to work at the Goodwill at Homefields Farm? How do I apply?First of all, not everyone is eligible. To know if you or someone you know would be eligible, you need to have a caseworker. This would be a case-worker from Mental Health/ Mental Retardation/Early Intervention (MH/MR/EI), the Office of Vocational Re-habilitation (OVR) or a school district. Your caseworker would then contact Goodwill to let us know that you might be interested in our vocational program.

Once Goodwill receives your refer-ral, a Goodwill program specialist will meet with you, your family and your caseworker. You will have a chance to talk about your unique interests. Tell your program specialist that you would like to work at the Goodwill at Homefields farm program.

The farm program is just one component of the Goodwill Work Activities Center (WAC). You may find

Real Farmers, Real Food, Real Community

other jobs in the WAC program that are of interest to you, including jobs in the Plum Street workshop and other mobile work crews. The farm program does not currently operate during the winter months, so everyone in the farm program works for other WAC programs during the off-season.

If I start at Goodwill, am I guaranteed to be part of the Homefields farm program?Goodwill cannot guarantee that you will be able to work at the farm. Goodwill’s goal will be to find the jobs that are best suited to you.

How do I know if the farm program will be right for me?You should have an inter-est in working outdoors. This means work-ing under the beautiful blue sky, but also being out in hot weather and trekking through the muck when conditions are wet. An interest in working with plants is a plus, too. You should have the physical stamina to work 5 to 6 hours a day, at least one day a week. You should also have the desire to gain independence in your work as you become more experienced at the farm.

What are the rewards of working for Goodwill at Homefields?Goodwill Mission: To support persons with disabilities and other barriers to independence in achieving their fullest potential as workers and as members

Board of Directors

Joyce S. Smedley, PresidentAllison G. Hawthorne, Vice PresidentBennett F. Berhow, TreasurerLinda Strauss, SecretaryTerry BlueWarren Lee EastwoodJay M. GroffJanet M. HartleChristian R. Herr, Jr.Suzanne OllarBarbara J. SpiegelbergThomas E. StraussThomas A. York

Honorary Board

James DetermanDorothy L. Lyet

Non-elect Members

Scott Breneman, Farm Manager at Homefields, Goodwill Industries

Melody Edwards, Residential Supervisor at Homefields, Community Services Group

Gail Hawthorne, Corresponding Secretary, Homefields

Tricia Warfel, Recording Secretary, Homefields

of the broader community. Goodwill be-lieves that work is, and will continue to be, a fundamental building block of community. Employment provides eco-nomic indepen-dence, as well

as the secondary gains of preventing and minimizing other social problems. It empowers each person to develop a broader role within the community.

Homefields’ Vocational Mission: To provide horticultural facilities for in-dividuals who prosper with supported employment, to nurture integration through community interaction, and to cultivate a spirit of volunteerism within our community. Homefields In-corporated offers an equipped, beauti-ful, and interactive farm property to each Goodwill employee on which to work, flourish, and meet appreciative customers, one-on-one.

There are so many rewards when working at the farm. You will work outside almost every day and no two days are ever the same. You will be an integral part of maintaining a healthy farm. This means seeding plants, transplanting crops into the field, hand-weeding, hoeing, watering, har-vesting, and washing the 45 different crops that we grow. You will be able to taste fresh vegetables out of the field and fruits right off the vine. You will end up with a great suntan! You will probably find yourself in better shape after a season of physical work, too.

You will gain responsibility while working at Goodwill at Homefields. Our shareholders will be depending on you to grow fruits and vegetables each week. You will be a significant

Hello, this is Homefields. My name is Angela Gohn. How may I help you?

June 2008 marked the first month for Ms. “Angie” Gohn to begin fulfilling her assignments for Homefields, and for Homefields to realize a staffed office, after incorporating in January 1993. Based on an amount given by a benefactress, the Board of Directors of Homefields has been able to contract with Ms. Gohn to work part time.

The Office is Open

Grant money, donations, volunteerism, and community co-alesced, allowing Homefields to turn two original 1800s farm buildings situated on the Homefields property into a fully furnished modern office and meeting room. The “new” office is centrally located between the houses of Homefields and the barn, between homes and fields.

Angela’s organizational and marketing skills have brought life to space, order to files, light to computer

screens, a personal touch for visitors, and will bring a more expansive voice to

Homefields.Please stop by Homefields’ office at

150 Letort Road, Millersville and give a warm welcome to Angie.

Email: info@homefields.org Phone: 717-872-2012

Fax: 717-687-8486 Mail: PO Box 41, Millersville, PA 17551

Peter Ollar (right) works for sysco foods corp. of Houston, tX as a senior Programmer Analyst and takes time to donate his expertise to Homefields.

contributor to the growth of the farm, both in the short-term and long-range planning. We welcome your problem-solving skills, your innovations and new ideas. You will be a representative of the farm when you are here working and also in your greater community. You will have an opportunity to be rec-ognized for your work by shareholders and may even be featured in local news media.

You will be an important part of our team. As individuals, none of us would be able to successfully grow food for a CSA farm of 150-plus shareholders. Only as a team, with each person con-

Scott Breneman, farm manager, goodwill at Homefields, gives a tour of the fields to attendees of an “open House for shareholders” on may 8.

At left, Brian Martin, farm assistant, kills weeds with a portable fire burner.

below, farmer trainee Eric Rooney weeds a row of potato plants.

Brian Bixler, Elizabeth Swope, Tim Briand, Bob Pelura, and Jeff barton prepare to head into the fields.

(story continues on page 3)

Kirk Hawthorne and Ben Krouse construct a wheelchair-accessible ramp to the new office.

I started at Penn State Harrisburg in July of 2006 when I joined the faculty as a Senior Research Associate and later as Certifica-tion Officer. My immediate academic life before that was at Elizabethtown College (1990–2007) where I moved through the ranks to finish as a Professor of Education Emeritus. For all but two of the years, I served as Chair of the Education depart-ment and Chief Certification Officer.

I started my career as a teacher, depart-ment chair, and district level curriculum coordinator for seven years in suburban Philadelphia, a job I took upon graduation from Juniata College in 1965. While doing that I earned an MA in Eastern European and Russian History at Temple University.

In 1972, I headed for Happy Valley and began work on my Ph.D. in Cur-riculum and Instruction. I stayed there until 1975 when I finished my doc-toral work. Then, my wife and I moved from Penn State to Lancaster where I took a position as Assistant Professor and department chair of Education at Franklin and Marshall College. When F & M decided to give up teacher education programs, I was a bit superfluous. Since my wife had a very good job in the area and had moved twice to accommodate my career, I decided to do something completely different so we could stay in the area. So, from 1983 until 1989, I was president and co-owner of a design-build construction company based in the Lancaster area. The most appealing part of my new responsibilities was to design houses “from scratch” for clients. Many of the homes featured heavy wooden beams, large open areas, natural products, and the like. In 1989, I sold my share of the company and spent a year designing and coordinating the building of a new home on 6+ acres for my wife and me in scenic Washington Boro, just south of the Route 30 bridge at Columbia. We have lived there since 1990.

While doing that, I started to look for a job in higher education and was fortunate that one was available here at Elizabethtown about the time I was finishing up the work on the house.

My wife and I have been married for over 40 years (happily married for a very signifi-cant part of that). She is the owner and CEO of Community Services Group, a collection of corporations providing mental health and mental retardation services over the eastern part of Pennsylvania. We have no children, but we usually keep the house alive with the noises of various critters. The current co-residents are two dogs (Tibetan Terriers named Tess and Zoe). When I have time, I

enjoy golfing—more for the fresh air and exercise than for my scores. My goal regarding golf is to play all of the top public courses in North America. I’ve logged time on more than half of them so far. Retirement and reasonable health should allow me at least to approach my goal.

Raffle and Donationsforms also available online at www.homefields.org

a Yes, I’d like to help Homefields with my tax-deductible contribution:___ $25 ___ $50 ___ $100 ___ Other

a Please send me _____ tickets for the Harley-Davidson raffle at $5 each.

Total enclosed $ _______

Name ________________________________________________________________

Address _______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

City____________________________________________ State_____ Zip _________

Telephone _____________________________________________________________

email address __________________________________________________________

Method of Payment:

a Check a MasterCard a Visa a Discover/Novus a American Express

Card # _______________________________________________________________

Exp. Date ____ /_____ Security Code (3- or 4-digit number on front or back) __________

Signature _____________________________________________________________

a PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR MAILING LIST a PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST

3.

He’s Not Blue Because He’s Our Newest Board Member!

tributing, are we able to pull off this incredible feat!

Some of the current farmers in our vocational program have shared what they enjoy about being part of the farm: Becoming more independent, learning new skills, the camaraderie among the staff, the new possibilities that are opened up, earning respect, seeing a baby smile at me as her Mom picks up her family’s produce share.

Will I get paid?Yes, all the labor through our voca-tional program is paid work. You can expect a paycheck every two weeks, and will be paid based on your performance.

How can I support Goodwill to make the vocational program Goodwill at Homefields Farm possible?You can become a shareholder at Goodwill at Homefields farm, pur-chase holiday gift boxes from the farm in December, or shop and contribute to any of the local Goodwill retail outlets.

Just by supporting Homefields, you are already contributing to making our farm program possible. Home-fields is the founding and visionary non-profit organization that provides this Goodwill vocational program with land, infrastructure, buildings, and equipment, all done through volunteerism.

For more information about joining the farm or purchasing gift boxes:

Farm Program: www.yourgoodwill.org/farmprogram.htm

Holiday Gift Boxes: http://www.yourgoodwill.org/business/lancastercountygiftboxes.htm

Goodwill at Homefields’ Farm: 717/871-3110, Email: sbreneman@yourgoodwill.org

Real Farmers, Real Food, Real Community (continued from page 2)

Congratulations to the winner of the 2007 Harley Davidson Raffle: A. Coronado, Virginia. The winning number was 2618. Drawing was held on February 9, 2008. Photo by Duane Berger, Photographer

Happy Valentine’s Day! $20 gets you five tickets and a video of the drawing posted on homefields.orgThe 2008 drawing is for a 2008 Harley-Davidson XL 883C Sportster:

• Vivid black• Rubber-mounted 883cc Evolution engine• Silver powder-coated engine (including cylinders and

cylinder heads with polished covers• L-back handlebar riser• 13 spoke aluminum cast wheels• chrome staggered exhaust with Shorty dual mufflers• 3.3 gallon fuel tank

When: Valentine’s Day—February 14, 2009Where: Millersville, PAWhy: Proceeds benefit Homefields, a 501(c)3 organization in Millersville, PA that supports adults with developmental disabilities and other special needs.

2008 Harley-Davidson Raffle

❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥

Non

-Pro

fit O

rgan

.U

.S. P

osta

gePA

IDLa

ncas

ter,

PAPe

rmit

No.

192

8

Hom

efiel

ds15

0 Le

tort

Roa

dP.

O. B

ox #

41M

iller

svill

e, P

A 1

7551

Iss

ue tw

enty fo

ur

Aug

us

t 20

08

The first board m

eeting held in the new

ly renovated offi

ce (see story on page 2).

Yield: 4 Servings

1 Onion (very large), chopped1 Swiss chard bunch1 can Garbanzo beans (also known

as chickpeas, ceci, etc.)½ c. Raisins½ c. Rice, raw2 YamsSeveral fresh tomatoes (or large can)1 Garlic clove (or more to taste)Salt and pepper to tasteTabasco sauce to taste

African Vegetable Stew

DONATIONSJanuary—June 2008

Gift given by the Lyet Family

$1,000Caroline S. Nunan

*Larry and Cynthia Welsch

$769.00†United Way of Lancaster County

write-in contributions

$200*B. Spiegelberg

$100Joseph R. and Anne Wallace-DiGarboMargaret NeffTom Zeager

$20–50Jane Shipe DunlopJohn and Jane Shipe, Jr.Richard L. LevengoodCynthia W. Sides

In-KindLea Kushner, Millersville University

Student Representative, for participation and collaboration with the Homefields’ Board of Directors 2007–2008.

Peter Ollar, for setting up the computers in Homefields’ office. Peter turned 2 computers from paperweights into tools.

David Strauss, Print Design Carolyn Semedo-Strauss, Web DesignReed Semedo-Strauss, Web Design

*Indicates new donor or higher level of giving.†Homefields, Inc. is not a United Way agency. The directors are grateful to those who chose to designate Homefields as the recipient of your gift. Homefields is an all-volunteer, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Fry onion, garlic and white stems of chard until barely limp.

Add chopped greens and fry a bit.Peel the yams or scrub them well with

a vegetable brush, then slice them into thick slices.

Add garbanzos, raisins, yams, tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Cook a couple of minutes.Make a well in the center of the

mixture in the pot.Put the rice in the well and pat it

down until it’s wet.Cover and cook until rice is done,

about 25 minutes.Add Tabasco sauce to taste.

Uga

ndan

text

ile ©

And

rew

Bei

erle

• O

nion

s © S

tasy

s Eid

ieju

s